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This study conducts qualitative research on late adolescent digital music users aged 17-19 to explore their emotional resonance and identities in digital music consumption. The findings indicate that late adolescents are highly dependent on music, with it playing a significant role in their lives, particularly in meeting emotional needs and shaping identities. Late-adolescent digital music users seek to assert themselves through unique and unconventional music tastes. The study also uncovers the coexistence of personalization and socialization in their music-listening behaviors, dividing them into "music-experienced" and "music-socialized" groups. Regarding emotional motivation, the music-experienced group listens to music for personal empathy, while the music-socialized group seeks interpersonal emotional resonance through musicbased social interaction. From a practical perspective, this study suggests that the digital music industry should focus on the emotional value generated by music and balance users' personalization and socialization needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various techniques are employed to enhance music listening and perception skills in early childhood. One of these techniques is the musicogram method, proposed by Wuytack in the early 1970s following research into active music listening. This study aims to examine musicogram videos targeting early childhood shared on a social media platform, YouTube. The study employed a qualitative research method, and data was collected through document analysis. For data collection, videos were accessed on the video-sharing platform YouTube using keywords "müzikogram," "müzogram," "musicogram," "musicograma." Within the filtering criteria, musicograms in Turkish and different languages were included in the study based on their highest view counts across all time periods and sorted by ranking. As a result of the study, it was observed that classical Western music was predominantly used in musicograms prepared in different languages, whereas digital music and familiar children's songs were preferred in Turkish musicograms. It was also found that the symbolic representation used in musicograms did not correspond to the melodic rhythmic patterns of the compositions. The use of musicograms for early childhood has gained significant popularity on social media; however, there is a need to enhance the content to be more comprehensive, including theoretical and practical information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary landscape of diversified talent cultivation, enhancing education through intelligent means and expediting the process of talent development stand as paramount pursuits. Within the domain of instrumental music education, beyond merely listening to student performances, it becomes imperative to assess their movements, thus furnishing additional insights to fuel their subsequent growth. This article introduces a novel multimodal information fusion evaluation approach, combining sound information and movement data to address the challenge of evaluating students' learning status in college music instruction. The proposed framework leverages Internet of Things (IoT) technology, utilizing strategically positioned microphones and cameras within the local area network to accomplish data acquisition. Sound feature extraction is accomplished through the employment of Mel-scale frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), while the OpenPose framework in deep learning and convolutional neural networks (CNN) is harnessed to extract action features during students' performances. Subsequently, the fusion of feature layers is achieved through CNN, culminating in the evaluation of students' academic efficacy, facilitated by a fully connected network (FCN) and an activation function. In comparison to evaluations conducted by the teacher in the class, this approach achieves an impressive accuracy of 95.7% across the three categories of Excellent, Good, and Failed students' evaluation processes. This breakthrough offers novel insights for the future of music teaching and interactive class evaluations while expanding the horizons of multimodal information fusion methods' applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in spatiotemporal gait measures induced by stepping to the beat of a metronome and to music cues of various frequencies in individuals with Parkinson's disease. Twenty-one participants with Parkinson's disease were instructed to time their steps to a metronome and music cues (at 85%, 100%, and 115% of overground cadence). The authors calculated cadence, cadence accuracy, and step length during each cue condition and an uncued control condition. The music and metronome cues produced comparable results in cadence manipulation, with reduced cadence accuracy noted at slower intended frequencies. Nevertheless, the induced cadence elicited a concomitant alteration in step length. The music and metronome cues produced comparable changes to gait, but suggest that temporal control is more limited at slower frequencies, presumably by the challenge of increasing the step length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of sounds and music on emotions and cognitive abilities. It highlights that auditory stimuli can influence attention, memory, problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity. The article presents research on the effects of learning to play a musical instrument on cognitive abilities and academic success, as well as the cognitive and emotional benefits of musical training. It also explores how music can enhance mood, cognitive functions, and quality of life for individuals with brain damage or neurodegenerative diseases. The article includes studies on the performance of cognitive tasks by musicians and non-musicians, the influence of music on artistic creativity, and the use of music in therapeutic settings. The authors emphasize the positive effects of music on mood regulation and cognitive performance for individuals of all expertise levels and mental health statuses. [Extracted from the article]

In the book "Sonic Bodies: Text, Music and Silence in Late Medieval England" by Tekla Bude, the author challenges the assumption that flesh and body are the same thing and explores the concept of sonic embodiment beyond the limitations of a single human form. The book is divided into six chapters, each examining different aspects of sonic embodiment in medieval literature. Bude analyzes texts such as Jacobus's Speculum, Richard Rolle's work on canor, Walter Hilton's Of Angels Song, The Boke of Margery Kempe, the mystical diaries of John Norton and Richard Methley, and Piers Plowman. The final chapter explores the idea of sonic embodiment as a disabled body in Geoffrey Chaucer's work. The book offers valuable insights for scholars in Sound Studies and encourages further exploration of the role of sonic bodies in medieval racial discourses. [Extracted from the article]

In "Tuning the World: The Rise of 440 Hertz in Music, Science, and Politics, 1859–1955," Fanny Gribenski explores the standardization of musical pitch over a century-long period. Gribenski examines the shift from A435 to A440 vibrations for the tuning calibration of A above middle C and the cultural tensions that arose from this change. The book delves into the various actors involved in the standardization process, including cabinet members, composers, performers, and instrument craftsmen, and highlights the interplay between scientific, political, and artistic interests. Gribenski also explores the international dissemination of pitch standards and the challenges and limitations of achieving a unified pitch standard. Overall, "Tuning the World" offers a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between music, science, and globalization. [Extracted from the article]

Lyrics-to-melody generation is an interesting and challenging topic in AI music research field. Due to the difficulty of learning the correlations between lyrics and melody, previous methods suffer from low generation quality and lack of controllability. Controllability of generative models enables human interaction with models to generate desired contents, which is especially important in music generation tasks towards human-centered AI that can facilitate musicians in creative activities. To address these issues, we propose a controllable lyrics-to-melody generation network, ConL2M, which is able to generate realistic melodies from lyrics in user-desired musical style. Our work contains three main novelties: (1) to model the dependencies of music attributes cross multiple sequences, inter-branch memory fusion (Memofu) is proposed to enable information flow between multi-branch stacked LSTM architecture; (2) reference style embedding (RSE) is proposed to improve the quality of generation as well as control the musical style of generated melodies; (3) sequence-level statistical loss (SeqLoss) is proposed to help the model learn sequence-level features of melodies given lyrics. Verified by evaluation metrics for music quality and controllability, initial study of controllable lyrics-to-melody generation shows better generation quality and the feasibility of interacting with users to generate the melodies in desired musical styles when given lyrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Music students in higher education experience health-related challenges linked to practice and performance, while an understanding of these challenges and access to resources to deal with them are required to promote the students´ health. Health literacy and health education are integral parts of health promotion and resources for health, which encompasses health-related knowledge and competence aiming to improve health. The aim of this study was to explore Norwegian music students' perceptions and experiences of resources and challenges for health and address the following research question: What health-related challenges do music students in higher music education meet, and what health promoting resources do they need and use to deal with these challenges and promote their health? Methods: We conducted a qualitative study including three focus group interviews with 13 music students aged between 19 and 31 years studying classical, folk, jazz or rhythmic genres from five different music departments in Norwegian universities. The Salutogenic model of health was used as theoretical framework and a few questions regarding the concept of health literacy were included in the interviews. We used thematic network analysis to analyze the data. Results: Main health challenges were related to performance pressure and difficulties implementing good health habits in the students' daily lives. Furthermore, the findings revealed several resources that promoted the students' health: (1) Personal resources included situational understanding, using adequate coping strategies, high motivation and participating in regular physical activity. (2) Social resources involved an understanding of the importance of social support from peers and teachers and synergy created between themselves and the audience through sharing of music. (3) Environmental resources were linked to access to good rehearsal rooms. The music students expressed a need for increased competence in health promoting routines during practice and performance and suggested that health-related topics should be an integrated part of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the framework of enactive cognition, musical sense emerges-at least in part-from the movements that people make during musical perception or performance. In cases of social musical practices, movements are coupled both to sonic changes (synchronies with musical metrical structure and form, for example) and to other's people movements. Motor patterns emerge from these person-music and person-person interactions and express the sense-making of the environment. Since the case of the dance is rarely studied by the psychology of music, it was necessary to introduce the anthropology perspective, which considers that dances-at least the folkloric ones-have a structure made by spatiotemporal regularities of the movements. In this article, it is proposed that dance at electronic parties is organized in motor patterns defined by the interaction of each person with the music and the other people. An empirical study was based on the audiovisual record of a tech house party (La Plata city, Argentina), and a microanalysis arms and legs movements of 20 persons at the dance floor, with the aim to identify and describe the motor patterns shared by people and their links with music. Based on this analysis, a dance structure formed by the constant repetition of a motor patterns' set, spatiotemporal defined was identify. The predominant motor patterns of the legs are two: one formed by two steps (44 % of the total time) and the other by four (50.8%). In both cases, people synchronize their steps with the musical beat, which produce a pattern of two beats length and other of four. The predominant motor patterns of the arms are also two, each formed by a direct movement and another in the opposite direction: one pattern's spatial trajectory is horizontal (48.8 %) and the other, sagittal (47.4 %). People synchronize their arms' movements with the metrical structure of music; the pattern's length varies between one (39.7 %), two (46.7 %) and four beats (9 %). People repeat each arm and leg's pattern multiple times before switching to the next. The moment at which each person switches their movements from a pattern to another is not temporarily aligned either with other people change of movements or with significant musical changes. Although motor coordination with metrical structure is a characteristic feature of a huge number of musical genres, the omnipresent synchrony with metrical levels of one, two and four beats of this type of dance is probably promoted by the specific features of electronic music for dance, which is analyzed in the article. The temporality of these dance movements can be described as an emergency from the interaction with the music and therefore reciprocally determined by both the music and the person. Instead, spatial features of motion patterns do not seem to have any relation with music. These features can be described as an emergency from the coordination of spatial trajectories between people at the dance floors of several parties, and therefore determined by the social interactions and the culturally right ways of moving in this context. Thereby, the dance structure at electronic parties emerges from the union of the musical and the other's dance sense making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to comprehend the latest achievements in such a field of neuroscience as neuroaesthetics, which analyzes the nature of music and musical creativity through the prism of ontogenetic features of the human brain. Using numerous examples it is shown that the key ideas of neuroaesthetics in general correspond to the spirit of Kantian a prioriism, reinterpreted in current terms of cognitive neuroscience; an attempt is made to justify the necessity of increased attention to the urgency of updating the professional training of vocal teachers, revealed the ideal structure of the competence of a vocal coach on the basis of systematized by him views of different experts, as well as proposed to make individual principled emphasis on a comprehensive study of trends in current musical culture by students; as a conscious and purposeful familiarization with such, in his view, is an essential element in the system of today's professional competence. The personal and professional characteristics that every future vocal coach should possess are revealed in great detail; the special importance of each of these components of success in competing in the pedagogical labor market is emphasized. In addition, key features of the dissemination of musical information in today's society, the impact of network technologies on the specialized training of teachers and recipients, the formation of the technological basis of vocal and sound culture aesthetics of academic singing of the future teacher are highlighted. As a conclusion, further, more in-depth study of the raised problems is proposed, since it is not sufficiently developed at the scientific level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has indicated a critical need for cost-effective alternative therapies. The present pilot study aimed to evaluate a novel, cost-effective therapy for treating insomnia. The study employed a randomized controlled trial with two groups: therapy and control. Participants were screened using research diagnostic criteria for insomnia recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) before undergoing simple randomization. The study included participants from Hindu, Muslim, and Christian faiths who were assigned to either the therapy group (Hare Krishna Mantra Based Cognitive Therapy: HMBCT) or the non-therapy group (control with relaxing music). Both groups underwent six weeks of treatment with traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, including stimulus control, sleep restriction, and sleep hygiene. Each week, participants in the therapy group received six 45-minute sessions of HMBCT in the evening and were asked to practice the therapy in the evening of the day of sleep recording. Sleep quality was assessed using behavioral measures, sleep logs, and polysomnography recordings before and after the six-week treatment period. There was a one-week period before and after the six weeks when no treatment was provided. Results showed that HMBCT significantly improved sleep quality measures, including a 61% reduction in Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) scores and an 80% reduction in Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) scores. Participants did not take any sleep-inducing medication during the study. These findings suggest that adding mantra chanting to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy may improve sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As faculty members, we should support students who want to engage in music research, either in our own labs or in collaboration with music researchers - even if one has never studied music before - and we should encourage the development of our own departments, in terms of the courses we offer and the people we hire. When psychologist Sandra Trehub passed away in January 2023, many of her colleagues noted her role in putting music on psychologists' radar - especially research on music in development. The evidence is all around us all: just look in your pocket (where a device is available that plays music) or at your credit card bill (where you've likely spent money on music) or at your children's education (which likely includes music). A bright future for developmental science on music We see this Special Issue as an existence proof for the vitality, breadth, and importance of music as a core domain of research in developmental science. [Extracted from the article]

Soundscape research on indoor environments is emerging as a topic to be addressed for the design of supportive, healthier, and more comfortable spaces. Only a few studies so far addressed the context of educational buildings, mainly focusing on high schools and universities. This pilot study uses questionnaires based on pictorial scales to investigate the indoor soundscape of classrooms for primary school children (n = 130; 8–10 years old). Perceived loudness and the affective dimensions of pleasantness and arousal were explored. Besides the actual soundscape, the children's ideal soundscape was investigated as well. The results of the study indicate that the most frequent sounds in classrooms are generated by the students themselves (voices, movements) followed by the traffic. The urban context of the school modulates the children's perception when windows are open to ensure natural ventilation. Pleasantness is associated with students' age, perceived loudness, and frequency of children's voices in nearby classrooms. The frequency of hearing indoor sounds (children's voices) and sirens affects students' arousal. Our results indicate that children at school are mostly exposed to unpleasant sounds, whereas their preferred ones are music and nature-related ones. The findings have implications for the design of positive and inclusive learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a sentence is produced with contrastive prosodic prominence, the word that carries the prominence becomes more salient, and alternatives to that word are usually implied. In processing, this implies that focused words and their alternatives should be more strongly activated. Previous research on focus processing has primarily been confined to Germanic languages. The current paper reports on two experiments investigating the role of prosodic prominence in immediate (Experiment 1) and long-term processing (Experiment 2) of focused words and focus alternatives in Mandarin. Prosodic prominence was effective in activating focused words and their alternatives. In the memory task, this facilitation effect was only found toward the beginning of the experiment. We attribute this difference to task-related adaptive use of prosodic prominence in utterance processing. This research sheds light on whether, when, and how listeners use prosodic prominence to identify important information and to evoke alternatives during sentence comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Using the visual world paradigm with the eye-tracking technique, this study examined the extent to which lexical tone similarity influences spoken word recognition. Method: In two experiments, participants were audibly presented with a target word and visually presented with the same target word, a tonal competitor, and two distractors, and they were required to identify the target word. In Experiment 1, the two tonal competitors shared either acoustically highly similar tones (e.g., target word: "..." /yang2tai2/, "balcony" vs. competitor: "..."/yang3zi3/, "adopted son") or acoustically lowly similar tones (e.g., target word: "..." /yang2tai2/, "balcony" vs. competitor: "..." /yang4ben3/, "sample"). In Experiment 2, the acoustic similarity of the target words and the tonal competitors shared either acoustically highly similar tones or acoustically lowly similar tones or identical tones (e.g., target word: "..." /yang2tai2/, "balcony" vs. competitor: "..." /yang2mao2/, "wool"). Results: The results of the two experiments consistently demonstrated a graded tonal competitor effect, in which acoustically highly similar tonal competitors attracted more visual attention than acoustically lowly similar tonal competitors. Conclusion: Tonal similarity plays a graded constraining role in spoken word recognition in Mandarin Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is music that is one of the most important branches of art that affect society and individuals psychologically and physiologically, which allows man to act from the moment he exists on earth. Music is not just an entertainment tool or leisure activity. Music that athletes listen to before, during and after exercise is a method in which athletes express their emotions, thoughts and perceptions without words. Athletes get the feelings of relaxation, motivation, arousal and maximizing their performance thanks to the positive emotion acquisition with the music tool. In the years of 1970-1980’, the sports and music relationship gained a different dimension with the fact that the music was included in the sports applications. The inclusion of music in sports practices in the 1970s and 1980s accelerated the relationship between sports and music. Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassi broke the world record in the 10,000m race in 1998 by listening to Scatman John's song ' Scatman '. Haile Gebrselassi “Music gives me a rhythm that matches my record pace.” can be shown as an example of the effect of music in sports exercises. Due to the limited number of studies on the effect of music in sports exercises and the lack of studies on music exercises in the field of e-sports, this study aims to reveal the effect of music on e-sports exercises n e-sports. The sample of the research consists of 170 students in the e-sports team of Süleyman Demirel University. The Effect of Music on Sportive Practices Scale, developed by Karayol and Turhan (2020), was used in the research. In the study, Independent Sample t-Test was used to, single-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA. Pearson correlation analysis was applied. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that the perceptions of the effect of music in esports exercises differ according to the gender variable. Female e-sports players are more affected by music before and during e-sports exercises than male e-sports players are affected by music before and during e-sports exercises. As a result of the study, it has been observed that the gender variable is a factor affecting the effect of music in e-sports exercises, while the variables of age and education field do not have any significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the differential effects of pitched and unpitched musicianship on tone identification and word learning. We recruited 44 Cantonese-pitched musicians, unpitched musicians, and non-musicians. They completed a Thai tone identification task and seven sessions of Thai tone word learning. In the tone identification task, the pitched musicians outperformed the non-musicians but the unpitched musicians did not. In session 1 of the tone word learning task, the three groups showed similar accuracies. In session 7, the pitched musicians outperformed the non-musicians but the unpitched musicians did not. The results indicate that the musical advantage in tone identification and word learning hinges on pitched musicianship. From a theoretical perspective, these findings support the precision element of the OPERA hypothesis. Broadly, they reflect the need to consider the heterogeneity of musicianship when studying music-to-language transfer. Practically, the findings highlight the potential of pitched music training in enhancing tone word learning proficiency. Furthermore, the choice of musical instrument may matter to music-to-language transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans readily recognize familiar rhythmic patterns, such as isochrony (equal timing between events) across a wide range of rates. This reflects a facility with perceiving the relative timing of events, not just absolute interval durations. Several lines of evidence suggest this ability is supported by precise temporal predictions arising from forebrain auditory–motor interactions. We have shown previously that male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata , which possess specialized auditory–motor networks and communicate with rhythmically patterned sequences, share our ability to flexibly recognize isochrony across rates. To test the hypothesis that flexible rhythm pattern perception is linked to vocal learning, we ask whether female zebra finches, which do not learn to sing, can also recognize global temporal patterns. We find that females can flexibly recognize isochrony across a wide range of rates but perform slightly worse than males on average. These findings are consistent with recent work showing that while females have reduced forebrain song regions, the overall network connectivity of vocal premotor regions is similar to males and may support predictions of upcoming events. Comparative studies of male and female songbirds thus offer an opportunity to study how individual differences in auditory–motor connectivity influence perception of relative timing, a hallmark of human music perception. • Female zebra finches can recognize temporal regularity across a wide range of rates. • Regularity detection extends to tempi far outside conspecific male song rates. • Females were slightly worse than males at flexibly detecting temporal regularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess central auditory processing (CAP) tests in patients with single sided deafness (SSD)and to study the effect of central auditory processing disorders(CAPD) on the contralateral routing of signal (CROS) hearing aid performance in these subjects. This case-control study was performed in Audiovestibular unit, ENT Department. The study included 20 children with SSD and 20 healthy control children. All participants were subjected to CAP tests including pitch pattern sequence (PPS), gap in noise (GIN) and speech intelligibility in noise (SPIN) tests. The child was fitted with CROS and evaluated by SPIN test and bern benefit in single - sided deafness (BBSS) questionnaire. There were lower SPIN, PPS, and GIN total correct scores in children with SSD than the control group. The group with normal central test battery has higher SPIN score and significant performance with questionnaire when fitted with CROS. Children with normal central auditory processing test battery performed better when fitted with CROS than those with abnormal test battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review elaborates on the influence of music on the psychological well-being of adolescents, covering the potential advantages, drawbacks, and necessary strategic interventions associated with music exposure. Initially, we characterize music and delve into a multifaceted classification system. Music, as a pervasive art form, is categorized based on regional and national parameters, and it also distinguishes through the assorted genres and traits. The mental well-being of adolescents is significantly influenced by music through mechanisms such as the facilitation of emotional expression and regulation, fortification of social bonds and the sense of belonging, as well as the fostering of creativity and cognitive development. Nonetheless, music, if misused or associated with inappropriate content, could elicit a spectrum of issues ranging from auditory impairment, diversion of attention, addiction tendencies, to the induction of negative emotions. To counteract these potential hazards, we propose several mitigation strategies including the selection of appropriate music styles, the establishment of a wholesome music environment, the promotion of the constructive role of music education, and fostering active participation in music activities among the youth. In conclusion, we underscore the necessity of a collaborative endeavor from all sectors of society to ensure a healthy music environment for the youth, which in turn would enhance the positive influence of music on the mental health development of this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the plethora of studies investigating listening effort and the amount of research concerning music perception by cochlear implant (CI) users, the investigation of the influence of background noise on music processing has never been performed. Given the typical speech in noise recognition task for the listening effort assessment, the aim of the present study was to investigate the listening effort during an emotional categorization task on musical pieces with different levels of background noise. The listening effort was investigated, in addition to participants' ratings and performances, using EEG features known to be involved in such phenomenon, that is alpha activity in parietal areas and in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), that includes the Broca's area. Results showed that CI users performed worse than normal hearing (NH) controls in the recognition of the emotional content of the stimuli. Furthermore, when considering the alpha activity corresponding to the listening to signal to noise ratio (SNR) 5 and SNR10 conditions subtracted of the activity while listening to the Quiet condition—ideally removing the emotional content of the music and isolating the difficulty level due to the SNRs- CI users reported higher levels of activity in the parietal alpha and in the homologous of the left IFG in the right hemisphere (F8 EEG channel), in comparison to NH. Finally, a novel suggestion of a particular sensitivity of F8 for SNR-related listening effort in music was provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Music-based interventions are promising for cognitive rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease; however, systematic reviews covering the topic are scarce. Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of music-based interventions for cognitive rehabilitation in PD. Method: Systematic review study based on PRISMA criteria. The descriptors Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease, idiopathic Parkinson's disease, music-based interventions, music therapy, music training, auditory stimulation, music, rhythm, rhythmic, cognition, and cognitive were used. Five databases were searched PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane in May 2022. Only randomized controlled trials with no limit on publication date or language were included. Risk of bias was assessed following Cochrane Collaboration criteria for development of systematic intervention reviews. Results: Nine hundred nineteen articles were found by the descriptors; 266 were excluded for being repeated; 650 for not meeting the inclusion criteria. The remaining three articles were included and analyzed. The interventions consisted of practices with emphasis on rhythm and were conducted in groups. Risks of important biases were observed, such as lack of blinding in the allocation of participants and in the assessment of outcomes, as well as incomplete data for some outcomes. Conclusion: Overall, the results showed no evidence of efficacy of music-based interventions for cognitive outcomes in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musical training has been evidenced to facilitate music perception, which refers to the consistencies, boundaries, and segmentations in pieces of music that are associated with the Gestalt principles. The current study aims to test whether musical training is beneficial to non-musical cognitive ability with Gestalt principles. Three groups of Chinese participants (with early, late, and no musical training) were compared in terms of their performances on the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT). The results show that the participants with early musical training had significantly better performance in the Gestalt-like Visual Closure subtest than those with late and no musical training, but no significances in other Gestalt-unlike subtests was identified (Visual Memory, Visual Discrimination, Spatial Relationship, Figure Ground in MVPT). This study suggests the benefit of early musical training on non-musical cognitive ability with Gestalt principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine selected baseline acoustic features of hypokinetic dysarthria in Spanish speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and identify potential acoustic predictors of ease of understanding in Spanish. Method: Seventeen Spanish-speaking individuals with mild-to-moderate hypokinetic dysarthria secondary to PD and eight healthy controls were recorded reading a translation of the Rainbow Passage. Acoustic measures of vowel space area, as indicated by the formant centralization ratio (FCR), envelope modulation spectra (EMS), and articulation rate were derived from the speech samples. Additionally, 15 healthy adults rated ease of understanding of the recordings on a visual analogue scale. A multiple linear regression model was implemented to investigate the predictive value of the selected acoustic parameters on ease of understanding. Results: Listeners' ease of understanding was significantly lower for speakers with dysarthria than for healthy controls. The FCR, EMS from the first 10 s of the reading passage, and the difference in EMS between the end and the beginning sections of the passage differed significantly between the two groups of speakers. Findings indicated that 67.7% of the variability in ease of understanding was explained by the predictive model, suggesting a moderately strong relationship between the acoustic and perceptual domains. Conclusions: Measures of envelope modulation spectra were found to be highly significant model predictors of ease of understanding of Spanishspeaking individuals with hypokinetic dysarthria associated with PD. Articulation rate was also found to be important (albeit to a lesser degree) in the predictive model. The formant centralization ratio should be further examined with a larger sample size and more severe dysarthria to determine its efficacy in predicting ease of understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether individuals with high autistic traits rely on psychoacoustic abilities in affective prosody recognition (APR). In 94 college students, Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and psychoacoustic abilities were measured. Results indicated that higher AQ, higher rapid auditory processing (RAP), and maleness were associated with a lower APR accuracy for low-intensity prosodies. There was a strong positive association between RAP and APR for participants with high AQ, whereas low-AQ participants showed no such pattern. The findings suggest a reliance on psychoacoustic abilities as compensatory mechanism for deficits in higher-order processing of emotional signals in social interactions, and imply potential benefits of auditory interventions in improving APR among individuals with high autistic traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal envelope fluctuations of natural sounds convey critical information to speech and music processing. In particular, musical pitch perception is assumed to be primarily underlined by temporal envelope encoding. While increasing evidence demonstrates the importance of carrier fine structure to complex pitch perception, how carrier spectral information affects musical pitch perception is less clear. Here, transposed tones designed to convey identical envelope information across different carriers were used to assess the effects of carrier spectral composition to pitch discrimination and musical-interval and melody identifications. Results showed that pitch discrimination thresholds became lower (better) with increasing carrier frequencies from 1k to 10k Hz, with performance comparable to that of pure sinusoids. Musical interval and melody defined by the periodicity of sine- or harmonic complex envelopes across carriers were identified with greater than 85% accuracy even on a 10k-Hz carrier. Moreover, enhanced interval and melody identification performance was observed with increasing carrier frequency up to 6k Hz. Findings suggest a perceptual enhancement of temporal envelope information with increasing carrier spectral region in musical pitch processing, at least for frequencies up to 6k Hz. For carriers in the extended high-frequency region (8–20k Hz), the use of temporal envelope information to music pitch processing may vary depending on task requirement. Collectively, these results implicate the fidelity of temporal envelope information to musical pitch perception is more pronounced than previously considered, with ecological implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Assessing violinists' motor and musical performance adaptations to dynamic assistive support (DAS) provided by a passive device, using a force-field adaptation paradigm. Background: Up to 93% of instrumentalists are affected by musculoskeletal injuries and particularly violinists. The repetitive nature of their work may lead to muscle fatigue, an injury risk factor. DAS has been used in occupational settings to minimize muscle activations and limit fatigue accumulation. DAS may however affect motor and musical performance. Method: Fifteen expert violinists were equipped with reflective markers and surface and intramuscular electromyography (EMG) sensors. Movements, muscle activations, and sound were recorded while participants completed three experimental conditions for which they continuously played a 13-s musical excerpt: Control (no DAS), Adaptation (DAS), and Washout (no DAS). DAS was applied at the left elbow (violin-holding side). Conditions were repeated 1 week later. Participants later listened to their own audio recordings playing with and without DAS and blindly assessed their performances. Linear mixed models were used to compare DAS and no-DAS conditions' kinematic, EMG, and musical performance data. Results: DAS perturbed user kinematics but reduced mean activations of left medial deltoid and superior trapezius. Joint kinematic and muscle activation patterns between DAS and no DAS conditions however remained similar. Musical performance was unchanged with DAS. Conclusion: Though DAS modified violinists' upper-limb configurations, resulting kinematics were not detrimental to musical performance. Reduced muscle activations with DAS could contribute to lessening muscle fatigue. Application: Although its effect on muscle fatigue should be further investigated, DAS might be useful in preventing violinists' injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effect of musicianship on the perceptual integrality of tones and segmental information in non-native speech perception. We tested 112 Cantonese musicians, Cantonese non-musicians, English musicians, and English non-musicians with a modified Thai tone AX discrimination task. In the tone discrimination task, the control block only contained tonal variations, whereas the orthogonal block contained both tonal and task-irrelevant segmental variations. Relative to their own performance in the control block, the Cantonese listeners showed decreased sensitivity index (d′) and increased response time in the orthogonal block, reflecting integral perception of tones and segmental information. By contrast, the English listeners performed similarly across the two blocks, indicating independent perception. Bayesian analysis revealed that the Cantonese musicians and the Cantonese non-musicians perceived Thai tones and segmental information equally integrally. Moreover, the English musicians and the English non-musicians showed similar degrees of independent perception. Based on the above results, musicianship does not seem to influence tone-segmental perceptual integrality. While musicianship apparently enhances tone sensitivity, not all musical advantages are transferrable to the language domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Pitch variations of the fundamental frequency (fo) contour contribute to speech perception in noisy environments, but whether musicians confer an advantage in speech in noise (SIN) with altered fo information remains unclear. This study investigated the effects of different levels of degraded fo contour (i.e., conveying lexical tone or intonation information) on musician advantage in speech-in-noise perception. Method: A cohort of native Mandarin Chinese speakers, comprising 30 trained musicians and 30 nonmusicians, were tested on the intelligibility of Mandarin Chinese sentences with natural, flattened-tone, flattened-intonation, and flattened-all fo contours embedded in background noise masked under three signal-to-noise ratios (0, −5, and −9 dB). Pitch difference thresholds and innate musical skills associated with speech-in-noise benefits were also assessed. Results: Speech intelligibility score improved with increasing signal-to-noise level for both musicians and nonmusicians. However, no musician advantage was observed for identifying any type of flattened-fo contour SIN. Musicians exhibited smaller fo pitch discrimination limens than nonmusicians, which correlated with benefits for perceiving speech with intact tone-level fo information. Regardless of musician status, performance on the pitch and accent musical-skill subtests correlated with speech intelligibility score. Conclusions: Collectively, these results provide no evidence for a musician advantage for perceiving speech with distorted fo information in noisy environments. Results further show that perceptual musical skills on pitch and accent processing may benefit the perception of SIN, independent of formal musical training. Our findings suggest that the potential application of music training in speech perception in noisy backgrounds is not contingent on the ability to process fo pitch contours, at least for Mandarin Chinese speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes and self-efficacy perceptions of students who receive professional music education towards modal hearing in terms of various variables (gender, age, class level, faculty of education). In the study, attitude and self-efficacy perception scales were used as data collection tools towards modal hearing developed by researchers. The Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficients of the scales were determined as 0.871 for the attitude scale and 0.901 for the self-efficacy perception scale. The study group of the research consists of 259 undergraduate students in their 3rd and 4th grade who were enrolled in courses related to Modal Hearing and studying in the Music Departments of Faculties of Education, Faculties of Fine Arts, and Conservatories in 12 randomly selected universities in Turkey during the 2021-2022 academic year. As a result of the research, it was determined that the students who received music education had positive attitudes towards modal hearing and considered themselves sufficient in modal hearing. On the basis of faculties, it was determined that the lowest attitude score belonged to the students of the faculty of fine arts, and the highest attitude score belonged to the students studying at the conservatory. There was no significant difference in self-efficacy perception scores between the three faculties. In addition, when the attitudes and self-efficacy perceptions of the participant students towards modal hearing were examined, it was seen that male students exhibited more positive attitudes than female students. It was determined that there was no difference in the attitudes and self-efficacy perceptions of the participating students towards modal hearing based on age and grade level variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to language, the human voice carries information about the physical characteristics of speakers, including their body size (height and weight). The fundamental speaking frequency, perceived as voice pitch, and the formant frequencies, or resonators of the vocal tract, are the acoustic speech parameters that have been most intensely studied for perceiving a speaker's body size. In this study, we created sine-wave (SW) replicas of connected speech (sentences) uttered by 20 male and 20 female speakers, consisting of three time-varying sinusoidal waves matching the frequency pattern of the first three formants of each sentence. These stimuli only provide information about the formant frequencies of a speech signal. We also created a new experimental condition by adding a sinusoidal replica of the voice pitch of each sentence. Results obtained from a binary discrimination task revealed that (a) our SW replicas provided sufficient useful information to accurately judge the speakers' body height at an above chance level; (b) adding the sinusoidal replica about the voice pitch did not significantly increase accuracy; and (c) stimuli from female speakers were more informative for body height detection and allowed higher perceptual accuracy, due to a stronger correlation between formant frequencies and actual body height than stimuli from male speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, pitch variation in a sound stream has been integral to music identity. We attempt to expand music's definition, by demonstrating that the neural code for musicality is independent of pitch encoding. That is, pitchless sound streams can still induce music-like perception and a neurophysiological hierarchy similar to pitched melodies. Previous work reported that neural processing of sounds with no-pitch, fixed-pitch, and irregular-pitch (melodic) patterns, exhibits a right-lateralized hierarchical shift, with pitchless sounds favorably processed in Heschl's gyrus (HG), ascending laterally to nonprimary auditory areas for fixed-pitch and even more laterally for melodic patterns. The objective of this EEG study was to assess whether sound encoding maintains a similar hierarchical profile when musical perception is driven by timbre irregularities in the absence of pitch changes. Individuals listened to repetitions of three musical and three nonmusical sound-streams. The nonmusical streams were comprised of seven 200-ms segments of white, pink, or brown noise, separated by silent gaps. Musical streams were created similarly, but with all three noise types combined in a unique order within each stream to induce timbre variations and music-like perception. Subjects classified the sound streams as musical or nonmusical. Musical processing exhibited right dominant a power enhancement, followed by a lateralized increase in h phase-locking and spectral power. The h phase-locking was stronger in musicians than in nonmusicians. The lateralization of activity suggests higher-level auditory processing. Our findings validate the existence of a hierarchical shift, traditionally observed with pitched-melodic perception, underscoring that musicality can be achieved with timbre irregularities alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Touch has a pivotal importance in determining the expressivity of musical performance for a number of musical instruments. However, most digital musical devices provide no interactive force and/or vibratory feedback to the performer, thus depriving the somatosensory channel of a number of cues. Is the lack of haptic feedback only an aesthetic issue, or does it remove cues essential for digital instrument playing? If so, at which level is the interaction objectively impoverished? What are the effects on musical performance? In this survey article we illustrate our recent research about the use of vibrotactile feedback in three digital instrument interfaces, using tools that we developed over several years and made available to the community in open-source form. These interfaces span a wide range of familiarity and gestural opportunities, enabling us to explore the impact of haptic feedback on different types of digital instruments. We conducted experiments with professional musicians to assess the impact of vibratory cues on both the perceived quality of the instrument and the playing experience, as well as on musical performance. Particular attention was paid to scientific rigor and repeatability of the results, so as to serve as a reference for researchers and practitioners of the musical haptics community. Our results suggest a significant role of vibrotactile feedback in shaping the perception of digital musical instruments, although the effects on musical performance varied depending on the interfaces tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current cognitive theory of music, concepts of Gestalt psychology are referred to in various ways. For example, neurocognitive models of music perception address the formation of auditory Gestalts as a stage in the formation of meaning. However, this view runs counter to central premises of Gestalt psychology of Carl Stumpf's school, which precisely did not describe Gestalts as synthesized phenomena. Nevertheless, it is argued here, borrowing from Gestalt concepts can promote current non-reductionist positions. They conceptualize musical perception not in the ways of information theory, but of phenomenology and action theory. Here the theory of affordance developed by J.J. Gibson in close collaboration with his wife Eleanor J. Gibson stands out. It was explicitly introduced into musicological research by Eric Clarke, but without reference to its Gestalt psychological roots. The article explores theories of musical affordance with the help of further methodological tools, which can be assigned to the philosophical schools of direct realism and constructivism. They open up the possibility of a non-cognitivist and non-representational perspective on musical perception. It turns out that Gestalt psychological concepts also have a catalytic effect on the expansion of our understanding of musical perception in this constellation, although this connection has hardly been visible so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain-reducing effects of music listening are well-established, but the effects are small and their clinical relevance questionable. Recent theoretical advances, however, have proposed that synchronizing to music, such as clapping, tapping or dancing, has evolutionarily important social effects that are associated with activation of the endogenous opioid system (which supports both analgesia and social bonding). Thus, active sensorimotor synchronization to music could have stronger analgesic effects than simply listening to music. In this study, we show that sensorimotor synchronization to music significantly amplifies the pain-reducing effects of music listening. Using pressure algometry to the fingernails, pain stimuli were delivered to n = 59 healthy adults either during music listening or silence, while either performing an active tapping task or a passive control task. Compared to silence without tapping, music with tapping (but not simply listening to music) reduced pain with a large, clinically significant, effect size (d = 0.93). Simply tapping without music did not elicit such an effect. Our analyses indicate that both attentional and emotional mechanisms drive the pain-reducing effects of sensorimotor synchronization to music, and that tapping to music in addition to merely listening to music may enhance pain-reducing effects in both clinical contexts and everyday life. The study was registered as a clinical trial at ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number NCT05267795), and the trial was first posted on 04/03/2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The therapeutic use of music is frequently based on active interventions that directly involve the patient through a sonorous-music interaction with the music therapist. In contrast, approaches based on musical listening are characterized by a relationship aimed at promoting an introspective work and processing of one's emotional experiences. Increasingly, the scientific literature has shown how even listening to music related to the patient's personal tastes (preferred music listening) and by-passing the direct relationship with the patient, can produce therapeutic effects in different clinical settings. However, in many cases, a clear therapeutic rationale and specific application protocols are still lacking. The paper introduces a novel approach based on music listening: the Therapeutic Music Listening. This approach integrates the subjective component of listening (patient's musical tastes) and structural and parametric characteristics of the music in relation to the therapeutic aims. The article defines theoreticalapplicative bases as well as therapeutic and research perspectives of this music listening-based intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopamine is a well-known neurotransmitter due to its involvement in Parkinson's disease (PD). Dopamine is not only involved in PD but also controls multiple mental and physical activities, such as the pleasure of food, friends and loved ones, music, art, mood, cognition, motivation, fear, affective disorders, addiction, attention deficit disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. Dopaminergic neurons (DOPAn) are susceptible to stressors, and inflammation is a recognized risk for neuronal malfunctioning and cell death in major neurodegenerative diseases. Less is known for non-neurodegenerative conditions. Among the endogenous defenses, bilirubin, a heme metabolite, has been shown to possess important anti-inflammatory activity and, most importantly, to prevent DOPAn demise in an ex vivo model of PD by acting on the tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα). This review summarizes the evidence linking DOPAn, inflammation (when possible, specifically TNFα), and bilirubin as an anti-inflammatory in order to understand what is known, the gaps that need filling, and the hypotheses of anti-inflammatory strategies to preserve dopamine homeostasis with bilirubin included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lexical tone languages like Mandarin Chinese require listeners to discriminate among different pitch patterns. A syllable spoken with a rising pitch (e.g. bí 'nose') carries a different meaning than the same syllable spoken with a falling pitch (e.g. bì 'arm'). For native speakers (L1) of a non-tonal language, accurate perception of tones in a second language (L2) is notoriously difficult. Musicians, however, have typically shown an aptitude for lexical tone learning due to the unique perceptual demands of music. This study tested whether musical effects can be exploited to improve linguistic abilities in the general population. A pre-test, 8-week training, post-test design was used to measure L1 English participants' sensitivity to tone. Individual Differences Scaling was used to measure participants' weighting of pitch height and movement cues. Participants took part in classroom Mandarin learning only (+L2), musical ear training only (+Music), or classroom learning combined with musical training (+L2+Music). An L1 Mandarin group served as a baseline. At pre-test, mean sensitivity to tone and multidimensional scaling results were similar across all three L1 English groups. After training, all three L1 English groups improved in mean sensitivity, though only the +L2+Music group did so at a significant rate. Multidimensional scaling revealed that all groups increased their weighting of the more informative pitch movement cue at roughly equal rates. Short-term musical training thus affected change in cue weighting of linguistic pitch in a manner comparable to that occurring after a semester of L2 classroom learning. When combined with classroom learning, short-term musical training resulted in even greater sensitivity to pitch movement cues. These results contribute to models of music-language interaction and suggest that focused application of non-linguistic acoustic training can improve phonetic perception in ways that are relevant to language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A listening experiment was designed to test whether modern listeners perceive the same affective content in Baroque music as the composer intended to portray. Listeners rated three musical examples from Johann David Heinichen's 1728 treatise Der General-Bass in der Composition for valence and arousal. Examples were chosen based on descriptions by the composer in which he outlined their intended affective content. Results showed a significant mismatch between original descriptions and listener ratings, which may indicate a change in the perceived affective content of the music. The historical variability of musical-emotional expression in general, with a focus on the role of structural emotion cues (particularly mode), is discussed, closing with suggestions for future research in the area of historical musical emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frank (et al.)'s article, "Exploring the variability of musical-emotion expression over historical time" is a thoughtful, creative attempt to tackle the thorny problem of reconstructing the historical cognition and perception of music. The article is a pleasure to read, owing in large part to the brilliant design of using musical excerpts composed by Johann David Heinichen to explicitly express particular emotional states. These descriptions serve as a ground truth for a modern empirical study. The study produced negative results, which are always tricky to interpret. This review explores some of the methodological choices of the study that may have contributed to the negative results. The review then questions the interpretations of the negative results suggested by the authors in light of some of the problematic methodological decisions of the study, especially the claims that the results suggest that the perception of musical affect has changed over the past 200 years. Finally, the review proposes what conclusions are appropriate to draw from the study in light of its design and framing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced pitch perception has been identified in autistic individuals, but it remains understudied whether such enhancement can be observed in the lexical tone perception of language-delayed autistic children. This study examined the categorical perception of Mandarin lexical tones in 23 language-delayed autistic children and two groups of non-autistic children, with one matched on chronological age (n = 23) and the other on developmental age in language ability (n = 23). The participants were required to identify and discriminate lexical tones. A wider identification boundary width and a lower between-category discrimination accuracy were found in autistic children than their chronological-age-matched non-autistic peers, but the autistic group exhibited seemingly comparable performance to the group of developmental-age-matched non-autistic children. While both non-autistic groups displayed a typical categorical perception pattern with enhanced sensitivity to between-category tone pairs relative to within-category ones, such a categorical perception pattern was not observed in the autistic group. These findings suggest among language-delayed autistic children with a developmental age around 4, categorical perception is still developing. Finally, we found categorical perception performance correlated with language ability, indicating autistic children's language disability might be predictive of their poor categorical perception of speech sounds. Some theories suggested that autistic people have better pitch perception skills than non-autistic people. However, in a context where pitch patterns are used to differentiate word meanings (i.e. lexical tones), autistic people may encounter difficulties, especially those with less language experience. We tested this by asking language-delayed autistic children to identify and discriminate two Mandarin lexical tones (/yi/ with Tone 1, meaning 'clothes'; /yi/ with Tone 2, meaning 'aunt'; /yi/: the standard romanization of Mandarin Chinese). On average, these autistic children were 7.35 years old, but their developmental age in language ability was 4.20, lagging behind 7-year-old non-autistic children in terms of language ability. Autistic children's performance in identifying and discriminating lexical tones was compared with two groups of non-autistic children: one group was matched with the autistic group on age, and the other was matched based on language ability. Autistic children performed differently from the non-autistic children matched on age, while autistic and non-autistic children matched on language ability exhibited seemingly similar performance. However, both the non-autistic groups have developed the perceptual ability to process lexical tones as different categories, but this ability was still developing in autistic children. Finally, we found autistic children who performed worse in identifying lexical tones had poorer language ability. The results suggest that language disability might have adverse influence on the development of skills of speech sound processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mark Gorman's "Saving the People's Forest: Open Spaces, Enclosure and Popular Protest in Mid-Victorian London" and Carolyn Lesjak's "The Afterlife of Enclosure: British Realism, Character, and the Commons" offer different perspectives on the impact of British enclosure of the commons in the 19th century. Gorman focuses on the struggle to preserve Epping Forest and other suburban areas, examining the role of political radicalism and the effects of rapid suburbanization. Lesjak takes a literary historical approach, linking enclosure to social, political, and economic factors, and analyzing its long-term effects on laborers and the landscape. While Gorman's research is detailed and focused on specific events, Lesjak's argument is more complex and incorporates fictional narratives. Overall, both books provide valuable insights into the historical and cultural significance of enclosure in Victorian Britain. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses two books, "Happiness in Nineteenth-Century Ireland" and "The Emotional Economy of Holidaymaking: Health, Pleasure, and Class in Britain, 1870–1918," which explore different perspectives on happiness in the past. The books challenge the assumption that happiness was prevalent during these time periods, instead highlighting the prevalence of war, poverty, violence, and anxiety. The books examine the social and political context of suffering and misery in modernity and the pursuit of happiness as a response to these conditions. The article also critiques the use of quantitative analysis to study happiness, arguing that it overlooks the experiences of marginalized groups. Overall, the books provide insights into the complex and often elusive nature of happiness in historical contexts. [Extracted from the article]

Karel Janecek's tectonic analysis is one of the most elaborate analytical methods, set apart from others in terms of both its premises and its aims. Apart from its concern with the study of musical structure and form, it is likewise oriented towards probing into certain aspects of a composer's creative thinking. Another aspect which distinguishes it from earlier methods is its prime focus on psychological-aesthetic effects of performed music, coupled with the aspiration to shed light on a musical work's genesis by way of partial reconstructions of the compositional process. Janeček's progress towards this analytical approach dates back to his student years when he became acquainted with the thoughts and writings of leading exponents of Czech music theory and scientific research. Most relevantly in that respect, he drew on theories evolved by the composer and scholar, Leoš Janáček, and the psychologist, aesthetician and composer, Otakar Zich. Their reasonings on the perception and apperception of music can indeed be regarded as authentic sources of the systemic groundwork of Karel Janeček's tectonic theory. Apart from revealing these particular influences, the present study also purports to reflect on how tectonic analysis can contribute in the process of apperception and understanding of a musical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Previous studies have shown that individuals with congenital amusia exhibit deficient pitch processing across music and language domains. This study investigated whether adult Chinese-speaking listeners with amusia were still able to learn Thai lexical tones based on stimulus frequency of statistical distribution via distributional learning, despite their degraded lexical tone perception. Method: Following a pretest–training–posttest design, 21 amusics and 23 typi- cal, musically intact listeners were assigned into bimodal and unimodal distribu- tion conditions. Listeners were asked to discriminate minimal pairs of Thai mid- level tone and falling tone superimposed on variable base syllables and uttered by different speakers. The perceptual accuracy for each test session and improvement from pretest to posttest were collected and analyzed between the two groups using generalized mixed-effects models. Results: When discriminating Thai lexical tones, amusics were less accurate than typical listeners. Nonetheless, similarly to control listeners, perceptual gains from pretest to posttest were observed in bimodally rather than unimod- ally trained amusics, as evidenced by both trained and nontrained test words. Conclusions: Amusics are able to learn lexical tones in a second or foreign context of speech. This extends previous research by showing that amusics’ distributional learning of linguistic pitch remains largely preserved despite their degraded pitch processing. It is thus likely that manifestations of amusia in speech could not result from their abnormal statistical learning mechanism. This study meanwhile provides a heuristic approach for future studies to apply this paradigm into amusics’ treatment to mitigate their pitch-processing disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]